Health authorities on alert after bird flu death in Delhi

The death of an 11-year-old boy due to bird flu in Delhi has put healthcare workers on an alert with the Centre asking the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme to look for suspected cases elsewhere.

The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has launched an epidemiological investigation into the death of the boy hailing from Haryana, besides putting his family members, close contacts and healthcare workers under surveillance.

“Contact tracing, an active search for any symptomatic case has been carried out in the hospital and area where the case resided,” a health ministry statement said.

It said the Animal Husbandry Department has not found any suspected cases of bird flu in the area and has enhanced surveillance in a 10 km zone as a precautionary measure.

However, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria told new agency PTI that human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus was very rare and there was no need to panic.

The 11-year-old boy was admitted to AIIMS on July 2 and passed away on July 12. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and developed symptoms of fever, cough, coryza and breathing difficulty soon after induction therapy.

According to the WHO, almost all cases of H5N1 infection in humans have been associated with close contact with infected live or dead birds, or H5N1-contaminated environments.

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